Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), responsible for internal security, announced today that they have, pre-trial, taken into custody several individuals and charged them with “actions and calls for actions aimed at violent change, overthrow of the constitutional order or seizure of state power.”
The SBU posted on Telegram: “The investigation materials indicate that the group was led by a co-founder of an NGO known since 2015 for its anti-Ukrainian activities. Under the guise of holding a so-called ‘veche’ [a popular assembly in medieval Slavic countries], the criminals planned to declare the ‘removal from power’ of the current military and political leadership of Ukraine. They then hoped to seize the Verkhovna Rada building and disrupt its operations.”
While it speaks about their plans, apparently the details provided only indicate that they were coordinating a public protest. The SBU describes that the leader had accomplices who were representatives of NGOs in Kyiv, Dnipro and other regions, and they planned to gather people into Kyiv for a seemingly peaceful assembly. “However, most of the participants in the event were unaware of the true intentions behind the assembly, i.e. provocations. The criminals planned to spread information about the unrest in Kyiv through domestic and foreign media resources. They hoped this would destabilize the social and political situation within our country to the benefit of the Russian Federation.” Apparently, during the unrest they would also try to occupy the parliament building, the Verkhovna Rada.
The SBU, according to Ukrainska Pravda, “disclosed the unlawful intentions of the suspects in advance, documented their subversive activities, and detained the organizers.” Searches of their residences found “weapons and ammunition; mobile phones, computer equipment and draft records with evidence of criminal actions.”
Various questions were left unaddressed. For example, none of the NGOs was named, but they would almost certainly be Western institutions. It would not be surprising if there was “unrest in Kyiv,” which if broadcast to the West would put the Kyiv regime in a bad light. Otherwise, it is left to the imagination as to whether the “weapons and ammunition” found were in any quantity that would support an attempt to occupy the Rada. The only photo provided by the SBU of the seized “weapons and ammunition” leaves much to be desired by way of evidence.
